Controversies continue with respect to the best mode of exercise. Cardiovascular exercises, muscle toning, weight lifting, jogging, swimming, and aerobics all have their devotees, and in fact within each discipline various theories abound with respect to the most effective techniques.
One area which should receive greater attention is the balancing system of the body. Since standing is a postural reflex with various muscles relaxing and contracting to maintain an erect posture, the body and brain's system for accommodating postural imbalance is so automatic that it almost goes unnoticed. When the body is placed off balance, however, the relay stations in the brain are signaled by the inner ear and send an immediate demand to the entire nervous system calling for the appropriate muscles to contract or relax in reciprocation in order to regain balance.
The essence of this invention takes advantage of the almost reflexive accommodation which the brain and nervous system play in maintaining balance by formulating an exercise device which tends to exaggerate off balance conditions in a controlled manner to concomitantly hone the balancing reflexes intrinsic in all people. As an additional intended benefit, this balancing accommodation provides a form of exercise.
Prior art devices are known to exist which, in some mode or another, rely on the intrinsic balancing ability of the exercise user. For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,361,427, Paves, is an example of an exercise rocker in which a supporting platform is adapted to receive both feet of the exerciser and a surface remote therefrom includes an underlying rib allowing rocking both in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the feet and transverse thereto.
The patents of England, U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,794, Armer Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,371 and Dieckmann, U.S. Pat. No. 3,761,084 all rely on balancing upon an underlying support member formed as an arc of a circle, such as a log or ball.